Still, one can be agnostic about both reports while being dismayed by the frequency with which such findings are ignored simply because they question policies that are so invested with righteousness that methodical economic reasoning about their costs and benefits seems unimportant. When the president speaks of "new green energy economies" creating "countless well-paying jobs," perhaps they really are countless, meaning incapable of being counted.

For fervent believers in governments' abilities to control the climate and in the urgent need for them to do so, believing is seeing: They see, through their ideological lenses, governments' green spending as always paying for itself. This is a free-lunch faith comparable to that of those few conservatives who believe that tax cuts always completely pay for themselves by stimulating compensating revenues from economic growth.

Windmills are iconic in the land of Don Quixote, whose tilting at them became emblematic of comic futility. Spain's new windmills are neither amusing nor emblematic of policies America should emulate. The cheerful and evidently unshakable confidence in such magical solutions to postulated problems is yet another manifestation -- Republicans are not immune: No Child Left Behind decrees that by 2014 all American students will be proficient in math and reading -- of what the late Sen. Pat Moynihan called "the leakage of reality from American life."

And Gibbs of course--the ever most wisest of all--says the report is false.

The president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was asked about the report's contention that the political diversion of capital into green jobs has cost Spain jobs. The White House transcript contained this exchange:

Gibbs: "It seems weird that we're importing wind turbine parts from Spain in order to build -- to meet renewable energy demand here if that were even remotely the case."

Questioner: "Is that a suggestion that his study is simply flat wrong?"

Gibbs: "I haven't read the study, but I think, yes."

Questioner: "Well, then. (Laughter.)"

Actually, what is weird is this idea: A sobering report about Spain's experience must be false because otherwise the behavior of some American importers, seeking to cash in on the U.S. government's promotion of wind power, might be participating in an economically unproductive project.

Praying that the Senate boots this POS Energy Bill in the recycle bin.

murphy - you ought to join a tea party group!

I drove by the San Diego main post office-and honked---but it was like 2 in the afternoon and only about 25 people there.

They showed the news later on about 6 pm and there were 3,000 people gathered.

There is supposed to be more events on July 4th--may have to check it out again.

I am sending emails to Dem senators to tell them to vote this down.

Windmills might have their place but if we are to invest in anything it should be pyrolysis and solar.

In a contained system pyrolysis breaks down combustibles so that elements like carbon can be separated and or filtered. This would make use of coal and the sludge from oil refineries without pollution though there may be waste products.

Unfortunately the "clean coal" industry wants to use a plasma furnace that still emits CO2, though it is more efficient than current methods.

Broad spectrum solar that will encompass the infrared spectrum will double the output of current collectors and produce electricity on days where cloud cover shuts down most of the visual spectrum. But this is still in the lab stage, and so far only uses about half the infrared available.

But I can understand the attraction of windmills to the blowhards in Congress, not to mention that pirate down in Texas.

This is an important story, and it should trump ideology. Neither liberals nor conservatives want to see an 18% unemployment rate.

Cap and Trade is an idiotic idea.. no matter which side of the aisle you stand on.

And right now, despite all of our best wishes, there is no such thing as a viable alternative to oil and coal. There just isn't, and no government can make it so. You can't make technology happen.. the science is either there or it isn't, and it may well be that neither solar nor wind is ever going to be efficient enough.. so tying us to unproven technologies, to combat an unproven threat (global warming) is silly.

So why is it people so concerned about the environment see nothing wrong with raping Appalachian and Allegheny mountain crest panoramas with those idiotic windmills??

Environmentalism grows knuckle hair.

Wait until the U.S. uemployment rate reaches 18.1%. Of course in the New Deal tradition, old press releases will be taken from archives, and the name Hoover replaced with Bush, and FDR replaced with Obama.

The blame for destroying the economy will in the public mind, remain with the Republicans, and the failing Democrat policies which extend the economic meltdown, will not be seen as exacerbating rather than remedying the malaise.

It's going to be a rocky ride.

Johnson (again I note your apt handle here), ever consider the Republicans are as much to blame?
Just a thought, fella.....